Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
Many times in the Old Testament we see the same thing as you
read to the Scriptures and that same thing as the people of God
recounting their story. They're giving the testimony of
Israel and they usually gather together and then they share
this entire story of Israel. If you look in Deuteronomy
chapters 1 to 4, you will see the story of Israel.
Joshua chapter 24, verses 1 to 13, Psalm 76, entire Psalm 78,
excuse me, the entire story of Israel, Psalm one O 4 and one O
5, the same thing. Nehemiah Chapter 9, verses 5 to
38, they're telling their story once again.
Ezekiel chapter 20, they're together recounting their story.
Why? Well, of course to remember
God's faithfulness, but also to teach their children this is
what God has done. This is what he's brought us
through to renew their covenant, which is in a way their, their
time to renew their commitment to the Lord to to repent of
sins. Sometimes if you think of what
God has done in your life and you remember what God has done
in your life, it makes you go, wow, I should live like he's
done something in my life instead of the way that I'm
living. And I'm going to return them it.
It caused them to unify as a people, that caused them to
worship God. And certainly as they told their
story, would help them to find hope in any crisis.
Because if this is what God has done, then surely this is what
God will do. And my current here and now, if
I remember the story. And so the Israelites were doing
this constantly. It was a dynamic practice for
them. It would help them to keep their
faith alive and it would help them also to have identity
together as a people. This is our story.
Our story. So this morning, very briefly,
because so many new people are here at Illuminate Church over
the last few years, I want to tell you our story as a
testament to the Lord our God and His faithfulness.
And then as a response to that story, I want you to meet a
special guest so that we together can give God a gift as
a thank you. Amen.
Our story begins when people sailed across the ocean and
landed here in America. I mean, how far back do you go
when Jesus died on the cross? I mean we.
Could go all the. Way back, but I'm just going to
start in 2010 when God called myself, my wife Christine and at
the time our two kids, we didn't have Eli yet.
It's kind of crazy to think about.
He called us here to lead a campus of the Crossing Church
which is a big ol mega church over in Tampa that we were
serving at and there was a. Church here.
Locally that was dying, for lack of a better term.
And the the doors are about to close and the dream was going to
die for this church here in Central Florida.
But God said I'm not done here yet.
And so we came over, we adopted this church and we became the
crossing church in Celebration. We met at reunion for a while
and we moved to the high school, Celebration high School and we
would set up the screen. We called it Godzilla because it
was a massive screen. It was kind of like this big,
but we set it up every week. And then Pastor Greg Dumas would
preach on that screen from Tampa.
The problem was no one in Orlando knew Pastor Greg from
Tampa and they were used to live preaching and now they got a
screen and this, the campus wasn't working.
It was kind of like flapping in the wind.
And so the leadership of the crossing called us up.
They're like, hey, how's your Wednesday?
Good. OK, good.
We're closing the campus and you're moving home.
It's like what? We just moved over here.
We huh, what do we do? So at that point, that church
again would have ceased to exist and that would have been the end
of the story for that church here in Central Florida.
But God said I'm not done here yet.
He spoke to the leadership of the crossing church and he spoke
to our family and a lot of families that were around that
time. And we decided together that it
was time to plant a new church here in Central Florida out of
these two other churches. And that church was called
Illuminate Church. October 7th, 2012 we held our
first service at Celebration High School.
Amen. 354 people showed up. That first Sunday.
Y'all I preached so well. Here's a picture of me.
Preaching that very first Sunday, by the way, I think we
have, Yep, there it is, just a kid.
I had no beard back then. I had a lot of nothing back
then. But yeah, the first series,
Miracle Maker, I remembered I preached so well that the next
Sunday we had 114 people. Yep, the the fastest degrowing
church in America. Yeah, a lot of people that come
over from Tampa. My parents were there.
A whole bunch of people were there.
And then the next week they went back to their churches, like,
wait a second, 114 people, That's what we started with.
And four of them was my family, and ten of them at least were
Tafts and everyone else, right? Oh man, 114 people who believe
with all their heart that God wanted to make disciples in our
region. Over the next few years, as the
church formed an identity, which took a minute.
Were we the crossing where we celebrate church?
No, we are Illuminate church. And we fulfilled Our Calling.
We grew and we grew. People are being saved.
People are being baptized. And we waited and we looked and
we said, God, is there a place that you would give us for our
home? A place that we could plant a
flag and declare that this region belongs for Jesus?
Is there a place? Well, in 2018, I made a back
hallway deal. I literally signed the contract
for the land that we're on in the back hallway of the high
school right before Vision Sunday, January 7th.
Also 2018 and that day nobody knew except for the elders and a
few others that we had bought land.
They just came to a normal church service expecting normal.
And I said, hey, I want to show you a video.
And I showed them this video. I just realized that guy looks a
little bit like me. That's not me, not even close.
That's Josh Sakis. Our it was a youth director,
youth pastor here for a while. And when we showed that video,
the place went bonkers. People in the back were weeping.
I was, it's like a football game happened.
And it was the craziest thing because I told them like, we are
not dreaming or thinking about this.
This morning I signed the contract and the feeling in the
room was like, God has done it. It's finally happening.
We're going to take the land. We called it the promise, a home
and that God was finally promised promising to give us a
home. We continue to grow as we were
getting ready to to go on the land.
People are excited about it that the church that the high school
began to fill out and get packed out and then 2020 happened,
little thing called COVID happened and during COVID this
church that it's been eight years or so or six or seven
years, however long it takes to get from 2012 to 2020, that's
eight. I could do the math.
We grew from 114 people on a weekend to about 600 people on a
weekend. And then like overnight 250
people vanished. By the time we were able to
regather at the high school, we were back down to like 300,
three, 150. And I thought, Lord is are you
done here? And God said, I'm not done here
yet in Jesus name. Also another bonus of COVID
supply chain issues. You remember that anyone?
The building that was supposed to cost $6 million went up to
almost $12 million. And at that point I was like,
OK, God, you must be done. There's no way.
There's like 400 of us. How in the world are we going to
do $12 million? Not possible.
With man it's not possible, but with God, how much is possible?
All things are possible. God said, I'm not done here yet.
Do you know that? Why we're here on this land, in
this building together, celebrating 13 years.
Do you know why? I'll tell you why.
Because God gave his heart to this region and said, I want the
people of this region to know of my love and my power and that
they can have abundant life in Jesus Christ.
And he gave those 400 people an opportunity and those 400 people
seized it with faith and action in an unbelievable way.
This little group of people gave huge, gave big.
It's stunning when I tell you all that they gave when we when
we said, hey, it's time to give towards the promise of home.
We said it's never about equal gifts because we all have
different abilities in terms of giving, but it is about equal
sacrifice that we will all put it on the line to say we want to
see this dream fulfilled. And what we asked the people to
do is give one large gift at the beginning and then give monthly
for the next two years and they did it.
Someone family sold a condo and gave $500,000 the entire proceed
of the condo. Another family gave a piece of
land in North Carolina and we went to look up the land and we
found out that the land was on Promised Land Rd. in North
Carolina. I'm not kidding.
The promise of home on Promised Land Rd.
Somebody gave Facebook stock. You're sitting in a seat bought
by Facebook stock, Can you? But some people gave jewelry,
some people gave coin collections.
Some people like our family, we took a big swipe out of a
retirement and it's like, God, we believe, go and do it.
All of these people gave and they gave and they gave.
And at the end of two years with the supply chain issues, I said,
would you go one more year, Another year?
And a whole bunch of people said, yes, we'll go one more
year. Exactly.
This project with the land, everything that you see, all the
lights, all the kids ministry, all the staff, all the the dirt,
the retention pond, the parking, all the trees, all of it
combined is $16,000,000. And this original group of
people, the OGS, gave $7,000,000.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? There's another part of the
story that's not even included in the $7,000,000.
When we found out the price of the building skyrocketed.
It was one day the reports came back like, here's the new cost
of your building. Pastor Kim and I were sitting in
right in front of the old offices in the car, like, wow,
what's going to happen now? There's no, I mean, we're going
to have to wait another five years and, and raise more money
and we're going to wait. And we're like, God's going to
do it. Like somehow we knew that God
was going to do it. He wouldn't have taken us this
far. And so I walked into the office.
I sat on my seat. 15 minutes later, I get a phone call from a
man who had no idea about anything that had happened with
our building. He said our company has
$3,000,000 that we like to loan you interest free.
Could you use $3,000,000? I was like, absolutely.
Just we've. Saved over a million and a half
dollars just in interest by this family, this company giving this
this loan to us interest free all of this time 15 minutes
after we're sitting in the car wondering God, how in the world
will this ever happen? He says watch, watch this.
I just want to say this, if you're part of that original
group and you're here today, thank you.
Thank you if that's. You would you stand and be
recognized? Come on.
Don't be shy. Come on.
Stand up, normies. Let's go.
I see you. Come on, Mom.
Mom and dad, stand up. You did it.
You did it.
God did it through you. There's a whole bunch of people
not standing. There Should be standing.
I see you hiding. Yep.
Praise God. They gave faithfully and
sacrificially. That's why we're here.
And I'm going to tell you, God is responding to your faith.
It's never been about the money. It's always been about the
faith. It's never been about the money.
It's always been about people, and God is responding.
Did you know that there's nearly 2000 people a weekend who come
here now who are meeting God, discovering who they are in
Christ, becoming more like Jesus, and leading others to do
the same? Did you know that?
Each year we're baptizing at
least 100 people a year, if not more.
It keeps growing year after year Did.
You know. That our kids ministry the
average church. Size in America is 65.
Our kids ministry, our. Next Gen.
Ministry, which includes students and young adults.
They serve over 5. 100 people a week.
And just in the Next Gen. ministry, this is.
Amazing thing that God. Is doing and there's there's
stuff we do in the community that I don't think you know
enough about. For instance, just two weeks ago
we started our third crossroad kids club in a public school
teaching kids about Jesus, teaching kids how to worship,
teaching kids the word of God. We're at Westside KA.
First time we've ever been at Westside KA.
Here they are. Look.
These are This is a public school.
Kids are bowing and praying. What?
What does that happen? Only by the hand of God.
Incredible program. Crossroad kids program also.
A few weeks ago, a few months ago, a gentleman from Tampa
called me. He said, hey, for some reason
God gave me your church and your name and I just want to meet
you. I'm like, this is strange, OK?
We're meeting on the phone. He's like, no, we need to meet
face to face. I'm like, OK, come on over.
We planned an hour together. We spent hours together.
I felt like I met my long lost fourth brother.
We had, well, third brother, me. I'd be the 4th, right?
I have two brothers now. 4th brother, third brother,
whatever. And we connected, we laughed, we
cried, we prayed together. And I'm just so in love with
this guy. Like, how can we support your
ministry? He's like, well, if you want to.
I mean, we're building this literacy lab in our church to
help peak kids in our neighborhood to know how to
read. Because if they can't read, they
can't advance like they need to. And we, we want to bring them
in, teach them literacy and then give them Jesus.
I said we are in. How much is it to complete the
project? He said $5000 and said the check
is on the way. And you all together by your
giving have sent $5000 to the way church in Tampa Bay.
Here's Pastor Keith to say. Thank you, Pastor Keith.
I'm Keith Babb and I get the privilege of being the lead
pastor of the Way Church of Tampa Bay.
And I just came on to tell Pastor Tim, the Board of Elders,
and the entire Illuminate Church family thank you for your
generosity. I know this may not look like
much behind me, but because of your kindness, this room is
going to be turned into a family resource room and learning
literacy lab. And here's what I really want
you to know. Beyond reading this room will
mean the rescue of another life beyond even comprehension.
It's going to be another soul that's going to come in covenant
with the Lord beyond resources. Another life is going to be
redeemed. So I want to tell you again,
thank you, Illuminate Church family, and thank you for the
lives that will be impacted tremendously, not just here on
earth, but for eternity. Pastor Keith and his wife.
We were just growing closer together.
We're about to, I was about to say have a sleepover.
That just sounds weird, but they're coming over with some
other pastors from Florida and some from Texas as well.
And we're just going to meet here and reunion and pray
together and worship together. And I'm, I just feel so in love
with this guy and his, his church.
And I thank you for giving faithfully here.
Because you did that, we're able to do things like that.
Amen. So I just believe that God is
saying I'm not done yet here and there's so much more that is yet
to have happened. We have so much vision still in
US of what God wants to do on this property.
We're only about 1/4 of done what we want to do on the
property. So much more ministry and life
to the community that we can be doing.
And God has been so good and faithful to us.
And today I want to give you an opportunity to say thank you to
God, to give God a gift. If you were, if you will,
Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17 says whoever is kind to the
poor, lends to the Lord, gives to the Lord and he God will
reward them for what they have done.
Way back in 2002, we had our first child, Owen, and shortly
after that we went to a Sunday at our church and had a
compassion Sunday and we adopted a child.
His name was Elva Stone Masharia from Kenya, and he's a he was
the same age as our son. And they've grown up together.
And every time that we've had a child, we then added another and
another. And some of our kids have
graduated the program. We've taken on new kids.
We have three kids that we have personally adopted because we
believe in the ministry of Compassion International.
And it's an opportunity to say thank you.
God, I love you so much. And I'm so grateful for what
you've done in my life that I want to give it to another.
And I'll make a small sacrifice, $43 a month in my life to change
the eternal destiny of a kid. One such kid is here that has
grown up through the program and is now making in a massive
impact in her nation, also from Kenya.
And I'm going to show you a video and then I want you to
give a huge welcome to our guest from Compassion.
Maureen Kaderi, would you please watch this?
My name is Maureen Kaderi. I was born in Karubangi.
Life was not so easy, especially as a girl child and as a baby in
the slum. My mum was not working, My dad
was a cashew labourer. The days he was working, he will
get like. $10 a month. And our house was $6.00, so you
can imagine how we will survive with $4.00.
Poverty brings bondage. Where you.
Tend to feel like this is me and this is how I live and this is
how I die. But the moment I joined
Compassion when I was seven years old, my life changed.
The compassion. Project was a second family to
me where. I received even more.
Love, you know and care at a very personal level.
I remember the first time I got a picture, a photo of my
sponsors and a letter. I was so excited.
I believed in myself and I believed that I was beautiful
and I started loving myself. And the letter continued that I
want you to know that we love you so much.
We are always praying for you. I received hope and compassion.
And you know. That is where I was taught how
to pray. I got my first Bible and I was
taught how to read the Bible and believe in the words that were
in the written in the Bible. And I started working hard.
I got yes, education academics, which helped, but also these
other livelihood skills which kinda empowered me, transformed
me and brought myself worth. I started believing that I can
do something. You know, my dreams are valid.
All these things is because of what I learned from the
Compassion Project. I am who I am.
Today, because of compassion. What I went through.
Has shaped who I am right now and what I do.
I started Rehema House Christian and nonprofit organization which
rescues young, poor, pregnant girls from the streets and slums
of Kenya. To me, Rehema is a baby of
compassion. There's counselling, there's
discipleship, there's mentorship.
We have people working with them.
I love these girls and. I connect you.
I connect everything happening with my story because.
That's why I'm. Thankful for my background.
If. I never went through what I went
through. I will not give the guys my all.
I know what it means. Go hungry for days.
These guys, that is what they're facing right now.
I'm able to fit in their shoes. You don't have to be reached to
have a good impact. There is power.
Let me tell you, there is power in.
Holding other people's hands, that is what compassion did,
that is what my sponsors did, is hope that trickles down to the
family, to the community and to the world.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
That song says today is a good day because you have seen the
Lord, Illuminate Church has seen the Lord.
And now, now let me wish you happy anniversary.
Happy anniversary or something like that.
Sikuye New Year Kuzaliwa Sikuye newly.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Illuminate
Church, and thank you so much, Pastor Tim, for having me all
the way from Kenya and to all the glory, all the honor to
Yahweh ABBA, our ABBA Father, the one who was, who is, and who
is to come. Let's give God a round of
applause. Thank you so much, Jesus.
And just as you've come back today to say thank you, I'm here
today to say thank you. Thank you to God and thank you
to my sponsors. I don't know what you're going
through today, but regardless of that, I want you to believe that
God is God. I am a living miracle.
The story I'm sharing is not mine, but it is God's story.
God rewrote my story. I was born and raised in
Kariobangi slum, the third largest slum in Kenya.
My family and more than hundreds of our neighbors lived in the
confines of just three square miles.
Every open space was filled with garbage, sewage and scrap
materials that people fastened into makeshift homes.
Poverty, chaos and darkness was so much in the slum that it
threatened the very life or to suffocate the very life out of
us. Extreme poverty, extreme anger,
substance abuse, violence, backstreet abortion, survival,
prostitution and crime. Rain wild in the slum.
My name is Maureen Kaderi and even as a young girl I realize
it will either take death or a miracle for me to escape
poverty. Cruel grip.
There was no bathroom in the slum.
We used what is called a flying toilet where you take a plastic
bag, release your waist, swing it and then release it wherever
it falls. That is where it was meant to
be. So if you are walking and it
lands on your face, that is why it was meant to be a miracle in
the slum. Can something good come out of
Kariobangi? My three siblings, my parents
and I lived in a 10 foot by 10 foot room that was made of mud
and rusted metal roof that had so many holes in the middle of
the house. There was a dirty tattered
curtain that hung in the middle separating the cooking area from
the sleeping area. Despite our parents hard work we
went for days because the only we only survived on $10 or less
in a month. So most of the times that will
go 4-5 days without eating and if we had to eat, they were
rotten fruits and rock rotten vegetables that we picked from
the nearby dump site or market. Remember our house was made of
that floor and the roof had so many holes.
So every time we'll sleep, we'll count so many number of stars
that were on the sky because of the holes.
Last months or days when it rained at night, we will all
squeeze in a corner that was dry until it stops raining.
And even when it stopped raining, we could not go back to
sleep. Sleep was impossible because the
dirt flow turned into mud. Even amongst the poor, I felt we
were the poorest. I was so bitter with God, so
angry. If God exists, why would we go
through what you are going through?
That is what I thought at one time.
I contemplated. You know, I wish we were all
dead, other than hoping for a miracle that mine will never
come. But God saw me and even maybe
before I talk about God seeing me, I will never forget the day
our mum cooked stones or she boiled stones in a pot because
she wanted to give us hope and comfort of a warm meal.
That is what mothers do. But God saw me, His face shined
so bright upon me. The darkness of poverty in
Kariobang Islam was no much of His light of mercy on me and my
family. When I was seven years old, I
was enrolled in Compassion International Child Development
program at a local church. I will never forget the first
day when I got there. That is the place where I felt
loved, accepted and wanted. We played with the toys.
I had never had any toy. We sang, we dance for mid
morning. We were given tea with milk and
sugar and a donut. During lunchtime.
I was given a steaming plate of rice, beef Stew, cabbage and
fresh fruits for the very first time.
My stomach was so full. Every Saturday became Christmas
for me and I was always looking forward to every Saturday.
And so I devised a plan because my family had gone for days
without eating. At least I was.
Saturdays I will eat. So I started carrying a plastic
bag with me and hiding it. So during lunchtime, I'll go for
my first plate and then go back for a second serving, third
serving and 4th serving, pretending that I'm not full and
then pour it all in the plastic bag to take back home.
I believe the cooks thought I had a bottomless stomach.
One thing that really stood out for me is that the compassion
staff never shamed me or stopped me.
In school, I used to be called a hyena because I was always
begging, stealing other people's food and kids called me a hyena,
which really lowered myself esteem.
And so for the compassion staff, not stopping me or shaming me
meant so much to me. I was given my beloved sponsors,
Mr. Rick and Roxanne Robinson, who loved me so much, who we
communicated through letter writing.
And I remember in one of the letters they said, Maureen, we
love you so much. We are praying for you.
We have a picture of you in our refrigerator.
As much as I was proud about a picture of me in a refrigerator,
the truth is I did not know what a refrigerator was.
So I had to go and ask the compassion staff what is a
refrigerator? And she explained to me it's a
big box that people store food, rich people store food in it and
makes it cold. And one time she had to take me
somewhere to show me how it looked like.
And the letter continued. You are beautiful.
I'm Maureen. Beautiful.
I used to be called Hyena. Malnourished, but they saw me
and said I was beautiful and they said poverty does not
determine your future, it shapes it.
And as I stand before you here today, I live that, and I'm so
grateful to God for poverty, because poverty did not
determine my future. It shaped it.
I'm grateful to compassion. Because I received my first
Bible from Compassion Project, I was taught how to pray and I
surrendered my life to Christ through the word of God that was
shared. Matthew 633 Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God, and all the other things shall be added unto
you. When I received Christ, I
received everything and I'm so grateful to compassion because
that is the best thing that they gave me.
Thank you SO. Much when you grow.
In poverty, you live both in physical and spiritual poverty,
but right now it did not matter what I was going through because
I knew I was spiritually rich. It is through compassion.
That I learned that it is impossible to.
Meet someone's spiritual. Needs until you meet their
physical needs. The hope of Christ.
Rewrites Stories I went from last in my class to being the
first person in my family to attend and graduate from
college. Thank.
You and as I. Stand before you here today.
I'm the founder and executive director of Rehema Foundation
where we rescue young poor pregnant girls from the streets
and slum of Kenya. These are girls aged 15 and
below who are pregnant either due to rape, incest and survival
prostitution and the only option they have is either to commit
suicide or procure an abortion. As a Christian minister, the
only option we have is Jesus Christ.
So we love on them until they love on Jesus and keep their
babies. I went from surviving.
In the slum to. Helping teenage.
Mothers escape the darkness of poverty in the slum.
I went from being sponsored to becoming a sponsor through
compassion for children. To be exact, the first child
that we sponsored was a gift to me from my husband when we got
married. That was in 2013.
I went from. Wanting to die to living a life
of purpose. I will tell you this sponsorship
is so powerful. It is not just about changing
one life, but it's all about changing destinies and changing
generation. I'm so grateful to my sponsors
who they not only saw a packet, but they saw a world changer.
They believed in me even when I when I did not believe in
myself. And they not only touched my
life, poverty ended with me. My children no longer face
poverty. I was able to take my family out
of poverty. The 90 gas that we've rescued
and the 90 miracle babies that have been born, the 64 women
under our community artisan group, there are 100 children
who attend Bible study. All this is because of one
couple that said yes because they said yes.
I keep saying yes it has. Not only changed my.
Life and my family and my community.
But sponsorship has also changed their life.
My sponsor testifies of this every now and again.
They were able to pass that on to their children and now to
their grandchildren, who are now sponsors.
As I conclude if. You ever think of me?
Maureen Caderi, if you are down there and feeling hopeless, I
want you to remember all the things that God did to me.
Please remember these three things.
One that God is good #2 the gospel changes lives and #3
compassion program in Jesus name transforms lives, it transforms
mine. And my prayer today is that you
will be that miracle that a child in poverty is praying for
with me today. Here is Rod Nason from Haiti, 9
years old. Who would want to be the next
Marine? There are so many children
outside there who are waiting for one person or a couple or
whoever it is to pick a packet and bring hope in their lives.
Remember the hope of Christ spreads.
Thank you so much and God bless you.
Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your
heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with
us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate
dot church. Have a great week.